Are you sick and tired of seeing litter on our streets, in our green spaces and in the hedgerows? Would you like to do something about it? Then please consider becoming a volunteer litter picker in Crediton.

Sustainable Crediton, the town's environmental group, together with Crediton Town Council, are keen to set up a group of volunteer litter pickers to help keep our town free from rubbish. In particular they would like to make the town look clean and litter free for the Britain in Bloom competition during the summer.

Charles Mossman, of Sustainable Crediton's Waste Action group, said, " We are looking for  people to be part of a team of litter pickers. Sustainable Crediton will get the group going and arrange for the necessary safety equipment. We will also make arrangements for the disposal of the rubbish collected and carry out an initial health and safety assessment. All the group will need to do is to arrange dates among themselves and get out there and help keep our town clean.

Could you be interested? You can get get more information by emailing Charles.

Councillor Mike Szabo of Crediton Town Council added, " The Britain in Bloom judges will visit Crediton between 4 July and 8 July. The route will probably be from the Holy Cross Church to St Lawrence Green via Newcombes Meadow and the Town Square.  It would be good to cover this area as a minimum. Crediton used to have Davy Jones, who single handedly litter picked in the town for over 10 years, but sadly passed away a while ago. It would be really appreciated if some community minded people were willing to take up where he left off."

Figures released by the UK's biggest anti-litter campaign, Keep Britain Tidy, have revealed:

• That council taxpayers in the UK fork out £1 billion a year to clean the streets.
• Over 30 million tonnes of litter are collected from UK streets each year.
• Thanks to the growing presence of dropped food, the UK rat population now stands at approximately sixty million.
• People can be fined £80 for dropping litter.

Charles Mossman concluded, " Dropping litter is totally unacceptable and is absolutely preventable. It is unsightly and gives a negative perception of our town. It is also costly to clean-up. Whilst we can do so, I think it is also very important to educate our youngsters about looking after their environment and not dropping rubbish in the first place. "